How Sunset Overdrive uses Xbox One cloud

Insomniac Games' Sunset Overdrive is an Xbox One exclusive published by Microsoft. So of course it's going to use that fancy Xbox Live Cloud that Microsoft's been so keen to talk about. So, how does Sunset Overdrive take advantage of all that internet-based computing power?

Insomniac Games' Sunset Overdrive is an Xbox One exclusive published by Microsoft. So of course it's going to use that fancy Xbox Live Cloud that Microsoft's been so keen to talk about. So, how does Sunset Overdrive take advantage of all that internet-based computing power? Studio head Ted Price explains.

"We are going to be relying on heavy backend services to churn through the data we get from players to understand what they're telling us and what they're doing in the game," Price said. "Some of the hardcore data collection, correlation, and translation that we expect to do is difficult and takes a lot of horsepower, and that is one aspect of the cloud that is attractive to us."

Ah, collecting real-time player metrics. It's something that SIN Episodes attempted to do... in 2006. On PC. However, unlike that example, it appears Insomniac won't track player data in single-player. "Our intent is that you will be able to play the single-player without an online connection," Price added.

While it appears neither Sunset Overdrive nor Titanfall take advantage of the cloud in a way that's unique to Xbox One, Price tells Game Informer that "the potential of the cloud for console developers is pretty large. Over the next five or six years, it's one of those technologies that will change in meaning as we see more games come out and take innovative approach to the more and more offline processing that's available."